Vigilant Guard designed to test preparedness of civilian and military emergency responders.

First responders help a role-play victim. Earl Brightbill-Lebanon Daily News

FORT INDIANTOWN GAP >> Dozens of victims of a building collapse moaned in pain and screamed for help Wednesday.

Nearby, civilian and military responders set up triage areas and decontamination tents while others searched the collapsed building for survivors. Eventually, the survivors were decontaminated of chemicals, and their injuries were treated.

The building collapse was just one of several emergencies unfolded across the state over the last week. There was a terrorist attack involving anthrax near Pittsburgh, a hurricane that caused widespread damage in southeastern Pennsylvania and a tornado that hit a hospital in Reading.

All the scenarios were part of a major emergency-preparedness exercise hosted by the Pennsylvania National Guard. Dubbed Vigilant Guard the exercise involves about 2,500 participants from eight state National Guards, more than 20 Pennsylvania state agencies and five federal agencies as well as role players portraying injured victims.

Advertisement

The exercise started May 7 and ends May 16, with training taking place at numerous sites across the state.

Vigilant Guard exercises are organized by U.S. Northern Command and have been going on across the United States since 2004. The one currently underway in Pennsylvania is the largest one ever, said Maj. Gen. Wesley Craig, the state adjutant general.

"This is the largest by far both in terms of military and especially integration of first responders, which is so very important," he said.

Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency director Glenn Cannon said the exercise is historic for Pennsylvania because this is the first time it has ever been done here. Normally, Cannon said, the state's military and civilian responders do not train together.

"We have a saying in the emergency-response rescue business: The middle of a disaster is not the time you exchange your business cards," he said. "You need to do that before the disaster happens, and so this gives us a chance to do that."

Cannon noted that major emergencies often have a snowball effect. For example, he said, when tropical storms Irene and Lee hit in 2011, not only was there flooding, but the flooding damaged sewage-treatment plants, and that led to e coli outbreaks.

"We refer to this on our side as a catastrophic, cascading event," Cannon said. "Something happens, and these other things happen because that's the way bad things happen."

During such emergencies local, state and military agencies often find themselves working side-by-side, he said.

Lebanon native Lt. Col. Dennis Sorensen, one of the exercise's planners, said Vigilant Guard is designed to integrate the civilian and military response to an emergency. That's important, because when military personnel respond to emergencies, they report to a civilian incident commander.

"That's something we don't really get to practice, and the first time we do it, we don't want to do it in real emergency," he said. "This gives us a chance on a big scale to look at those processes and procedures we have in place and make sure they work, tweak them for the future so when the next emergency happens, we're ready to go."

Sorensen called Wednesday's portion at the Gap "organized chaos."

"All you see is soldiers running around, putting stuff up," he said. "They're trying to do things as fast and as expeditiously as possible so they can help. There's a lot of infrastructure to build to get to that point and it takes a lot people, a lot of organizational skills, and teamwork to get it all done."

The role players, meanwhile, had makeup applied to simulate injuries – sometimes gruesome – and were trained to provide a high stress environment for the responders. It all served a purpose, Craig said.

"You train your soldiers and airmen to deal with the worst so when they actually see it for real, they can react rather than freeze up," he said. "It adds a lot of realism that you wouldn't get from a mannequin. You have people screaming and yelling, you have simulated blood spurting, it's very realistic."